“I will allow you this one time because I’ve not made myself clear when it came to you.When we were interviewing, there was a spark, and I’ve since decided that you’d be the perfect match for me.”She asked him if he was married.“I am.But she doesn’t have to know about us.And there will be an us, Elaine darling.Because it’s what I want.”
“I want you to leave.”She looked over at Knox, who had told him again to leave.“You’re disrupting our plans, and if you don’t, I’m going to call the police.”
“Call them.I’ll just tell them that she’s not working out, and I came here to fire her.See what that does for her money coming in.”She decided that she’d had enough and was actually afraid of the principal now that he was showing his true side.Standing up, so did Knox; he never let go of her hand while they were standing either.“Where do you think you’re going?I’m not nearly finished talking with you.You there, you’re an Erickson.You know that she’s only seeing you because you have money, don’t you?All women are like that.”
“I think you’ve said enough.”Knox pulled out his cell phone only to have it knocked away by David.When she handed him hers, he tried to do the same, but was unable in his attempt to do so.Almost as soon as he called the police, they were coming into the restaurant.“I’m pressing charges against this man for knocking my cell phone away and interrupting our dinner.Not to mention he embarrassed my date.”
It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get him taken out of the restaurant.She sat down and tried to calm her nerves when Knox asked her if she was all right.She stared at him for several minutes before she could answer.
“I’m sorry about this.”He asked her what for.“I’ve been thinking he’s been creepy for the last week.Then today, he stood too close to me and had me backed up against the wall.I felt dirty when I got home and had to take a shower.That’s why I was late in getting ready.”
“I’ll take care that he doesn’t bother you again.”She asked him how he was going to do that when he was her boss.“I don’t know, but I’ll do what I can.Are you sure you want to work for him after this?I mean, he seems a little unhinged if you ask me.”
“I think he’s more than a little unhinged, but I think I can handle him.If he gets too bad, well, I guess I’ll have to quit.I won’t allow him to hurt me like he has tonight and get away with it.”She thought about what he’d said about her belonging to him.“I don’t know what he meant by that.I mean, we’ve never even had a personal conversation since I’ve been working there.”
“As we said, he’s unhinged.I’m going to do a more extensive background check on him whenI get home.I can’t believe that I haven’t done it before now.I guess I just assumed that one had been done on him before he’d been hired.I’ll make sure I dig deep, too.”She played around with her dessert, no longer interested in it as she’d been before.“Have a bite or two, and I’ll take you home.I’m worried about you if you want to know the truth.Just be extra careful at school tomorrow.There is no telling what he’ll do when he has you all to himself.”
“I’ll be careful.”She would too.There wouldn’t be any more cornering her either.She was going to stand up for herself.And for as much as she needed the job, she wouldn’t hesitate to quit if it came to that.“You be careful too.He’s already shown that he isn’t above making a scene about this, so you make sure that you keep an eye out for him as well.”
“I will.”Knox ended up paying the check with the comment that he’d have to have another date with her because she would still owe him.As they walked out to his car, he held her hand tightly in his much larger one, and when they got to the car, he pulled her into his arms.The kiss was more than she could have hoped for, and when he lifted his head, he smiled at her.“I’ve been wanting to do that all evening.Since I picked you up.”
“You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?”He laughed and told her if only that were true.“I like you, Knox.And could easily fall in love with you if you keep being a gentleman like you are.”
“Good.Then my plan is working.”He held the door open for her until she was inside his car.Then he walked around to his side and got in.“How about we get together on Saturday?I have a meeting first thing in the morning, but after that I’m free all day.We could go to town and have a nice walk around again without David hanging around to pounce on us.”
“I’d like that very much.”He kissed the back of her hand, and she wanted to sing to the world that she’d met a nice man.It wasn’t often that a nice man would come around to date her, but with him, she really could fall in love with him and never look back.But as she’d told him, he was out of her league when it came to them going beyond seeing each other on occasion.
By the time they were pulling up in front of her place, she’d convinced herself that this was going to be a one-time thing.He was just being nice about asking her out again, and that this would be the end of things.However, when he walked her to her door and kissed her goodnight, she was nearly to the point where she wanted to beg him to see her again.
Sitting down at her makeshift desk, the table that had been delivered yesterday, she figured out her finances.She wasn’t going to have a lot extra with her checks coming in regularly now, but she could make it until her lease ran out.Writing out her resignation, she was finished with it at midnight.There was no way that she was going to be able to work for the school again with David around.Sending it to the board before she changed her mind, she went to bed with a heavy heart.She loved her job but wasn’t going to be subject to David any more than she had to.
Living in a small town like this one, it would be all over town what had happened at thePot.By this time tomorrow night, everyone would know, and she’d have to live with it until she could move on.David had messed with the wrong girl if he thought that he could get by with treating her like he had.
She wanted to call Knox and tell him what she’d done, but it was late, and she didn’t want him to tell her how crazy she’d been in quitting.Not that she thought that he would, but she didn’t know him well enough to know what he’d say to her.The man was wealthy and still worked.How much would he make fun of her if she were to tell him that, without a steady income, she was going to be eating light over the next few months because she was nearly broke?
She didn’t sleep well.She would think about David and the way that he looked at her and be frightened all over again.He’d not hurt her in any way, but she thought that he might well have if they’d been alone.And that scared her more than anything.The lengths that he’d go to in order to make her his.Shivering at the thought, she was up well before the alarm went off and was ready to go an hour before she had to be at the school.She did wonder how long it would take before the board notified him of her resignation, but wasn’t going to worry about that now.She had a full day’s work ahead of her, and she was going to do her best to make it one of the best days she’d had.
~*~
Knox found three different incidents of things that had happened with David Sheen.He’d been fired from his last job for beating up a woman teacher for her being married.That was his excuse.When he’d been asked why he’d done it, he said that she wouldn’t leave her husband for him, and that was enough of an excuse for him.The woman recovered but didn’t teach anymore.
The other two were of the same thing but different schools.And he’d not beaten anyone up.David had been to nine different schools in the last eleven years, and he wondered what the reason was that he’d left the other six.As much as he dug into his life, the more he wondered if anyone else had been hurt by him.He sent a letter to the board to let them know that they had a serial troublemaker in their school.He wondered what they’d do about it.
Getting ready for work the next morning, he heard from two of the nine board members as well.He’d been told that one of the teachers had given their two weeks’ notice as well, and was asked if it had anything to do with David.He asked if it was Elaine, and he was proud of her for not going back to the school.It wouldn’t bode well for her, he had a feeling, and didn’t want her hurt.
They asked him why it was just coming to light, and he told them that he had assumed that they’d done a thorough background check on him when they hired him.They said that they didn’t know if one had been done or not, and that pissed him off.Why weren’t they doing these on everyone that they hired, but they didn’t have an answer.Well, he was going to take care of it now and told them that they needed to fire him before he hurt someone else.They agreed and asked him to do it.
“No.I’ve got a job, and that’s all there is to it.He’s working today with Elaine and will more than likely hurt her if she tries to get away from him.Or if he figures out that she’s going to be quitting.You haven’t told him yet, have you?”They hadn’t, thank goodness, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t find out sooner rather than later.“I understand that, but he’s going to hurt her if he gets the chance.You have to do something now before it’s too late, and you have a lawsuit on your hands about her.This time, he might not settle for just beating her up.He might well kill her then, where will you be?”
“We’ll go over and talk to him immediately.We’ll tell him what you told us and then fire him.We just don’t need this sort of thing going on at that level of school.”He didn’t think that needed this going on at any level, but he kept his mouth shut.They were going to fire him, and that was about the best news he’d heard all day.
Perhaps then they’d hire Elaine back, and she’d be able to stick around so that he could see her again.Laughing to himself, he was happy that he’d not told them that when he’d been thinking about it.That would have been something that they wouldn’t have found so funny as he did.
By noon, it was all over town about what had happened last night at the restaurant.There was even a video from someone who had recorded it.He watched it three times before sending it off to the board.The one thing that he’d not heard about was the firing of David.He hoped they didn’t change their mind.But since he wasn’t on the board like one of his brothers was, he’d get with Locke to see what he could find out.
He found it hard to focus on his work.He worried about Elaine and David through most of the morning.When he was called by the board, them telling him that they’d had to arrest David for not wanting to leave, he knew that it would be all over town again about that.He just wanted to hear from Elaine to make sure she was doing all right before he could concentrate on his work.
At lunch, he called her.When it went straight to voicemail, he was nervous that something had happened.Almost as soon as he closed the connection with her phone, it rang back.He knew the number was hers, but the voice wasn’t.It was Locke, and he sounded stressed.
